We’re aware that this state only recently concluded Week 4 of the high school football season. And maybe it’s too early to peek at the playoff picture.

But we’re going to look anyway, thanks to the fine folks at ColoradoPrepFootball.com, who have an on-going calculation of Wild Card points, which are used to fill and seed the Class 4A and 5A brackets.

(Wild Card points are derived from a CHSAA formula that rates teams based on wins, while factoring in a loose estimation of strength of schedule.)

And here’s a somewhat surprising revelation: as things stand right now, Ralston Valley holds the No. 1-overall seed in 5A by a slim margin over Grand Junction — and Regis Jesuit would start the playoffs as the No. 24 seed.

See the full Wild Card rankings here (scroll down). Keep in mind that the top 32 teams make the playoffs, with the top 16 seeds locked in by Wild Card points, and the other 16 only able to move up or down one seed to avoid a first-round matchup with a conference opponent.

The complete top 10 in 5A, as of right now: Ralston Valley, Grand Junction, Columbine, Arapahoe, Thornton, Grandview, Pomona, Horizon, ThunderRidge and Westminster.

Three-time defending champion Mullen is currently the No. 11 seed, but expect the Mustangs to climb as the season goes on. Among the remaining games on Mullen’s schedule are Bear Creek (3-1), Heritage (3-1), Arapahoe (4-0) and Columbine (4-0) — all games that should amount to decent number of Wild Card points.

In 4A, ColoradoPrepFootball.com has Valor Christian (duh) as the top team in terms of Wild Card points, with Pine Creek, Monarch, Longmont and Castle View rounding out the top five.

The 16-team 4A field is filled by automatic qualifiers from conference champions (five teams — but six if a 4A team wins, ties for first, or finishes second in the mixed-classification Southwestern Conference). The remaining 11 (or 10) qualifiers are based on Wild Card points. A committee then determines seeding.

Hey, it’s (very, very) early, but it’s interesting.

Short stuff:

I was at Valor Christian this morning and ran into offensive lineman Alex Kozan, among the best in-state recruits this cycle with more than 20 offers in his pocket. Not among those offers is Ohio State, though it’s believed that the Buckeyes would immediately become a favorite should they offer. Kozan was wearing an Ohio State shirt this morning, further driving that point home.

Valor, by the way, is now ranked No. 8 in the country by MaxPreps’ Freeman rankings.

Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.